Matthias Winckelmann At the End Before the Beginning

At The End Before The Beginning is an experimental film on the topic of expectations – how we experience anticipation as social beings, individual person, and film audience.

Consisting of six ostensibly incoherent chapters, the film presents seven distinctive characters, beginning with a child sitting alone in the dark and looking straight into the camera, one couple intensely expressing intimacy through body tension and release, a soldier kneeling down in front of a painting in an art gallery, a dressed up lady waving her arms against flying pieces of glass, a man in suit floating upside down above street stairs while holding an open briefcase, an old guy playing a magic cube when toys are falling from the sky, to the final scene, where all the characters gather together and open up a new beginning at the end.

Compositing fully textured CG elements in video footage, the artist skillfully creates stunning imageries that present a psychological world between the real and the imaginary. An abstract yet intriguing narrative is constructed to deconstruct the expectations of the audience, thus the narrative itself becomes a metaphorical tool to unfold the philosophical question – what do we see when we do not see?

At The End Before The Beginning is a surreal portrait collage of people loosing themselves in fulfilling expectations. As we are watching the film, we are also building up expectations and trying to make sense out of the puzzle. Whether or not we will get lost depends on our own will to break expectations of individual roles in society and perception of reality.